15 years ago, President Clinton signed the welfare reform act changing ADFC to TANF and creating new goals for the program. We blogged about it this week and the week before and there’s been no shortage of commentary from experts and pundits. Through the Alliance lens, TANF plays a critical role in preventing family homelessness. TANF, and other social programs like it, provide the support that the lowest-income families need to stay stably housed. Investing in social programs for the lowest-income Americans is an investment in preventing homelessness before it starts.

A couple more stories of note: In Washington state, Senator Patty Murray – longtime champion of our cause and supercommittee member continued her work responding to the voices of veterans seeking jobs and housing. And in Winston-Salem (NC), homeless people won the right to serve on a council addressing homeless issues. We’ll see how both these stories pan out moving forward.

If you have great stories about homelessness from your community, please share them with us. You can connect to us on Facebook, on Twitter, or you can always leave a comment here.